I question things which people take for granted. I would have been that kid who said the emperor was naked. In real life that kid would probably have been lynched, but I'll take my chances...
I believe truth inherently valuable, no matter how well intentioned the ideology it dispels may be.
I also write about random interesting things from my personal life.

26 February 2014

French feminist role reversal movie

Overall, this was great. I
love that it was made, and I hope some of the guys who treat women so
disrespectfully see it, and it gets through.

As a guy, I actually have been harassed on occasion - by a
co-worker (about 20 years my senior) who made suggestive comments
regularly, by a gay guy who, when I was at a bus stop (shirtless,
because it was a really hot day) pulled up in his car and proceeded to
jack off while staring at me, by a homeless women who followed me around
insisting I get a hotel room for us to share - but these were all rare,
isolated incidents.
So I can sympathize with the general discomfort, but I can't
really even imagine what it would be like to experience on a regular
ongoing basis.

There is one problem I have with this video
though - the last scene perpetuates a belief, shared by almost everyone,
which is based more on misogyny than fact.
The guy really was "asking for it" when he yelled back at the gang
members. Not because of how he was dressed or any signals he gave off,
but because he YELLED BACK AT GANG MEMBERS! In the real
world, in the poor neighborhoods I have lived in, I started to notice
several years ago that women regularly yell at people they are having
arguments with on the street, but men rarely do. Why?
Because every male above about the age of 13 who lives in an area
with street crime knows that doing that will get the shit beat out of
you. Because the reality is that men are the victims of
violent crime by strangers over 1/3 more often (down from twice as often
a couple decades ago). What any male with even an ounce of street
smarts does when a group of 4 dangerous looking teens starts harassing
him verbally is ignore it, let it go, and continue with his life.
Sometimes women yell or insult them back - and the reason they think
this is ok is because most of the time they can get away with it -
almost all men, even the low life scum who look for excuses to attack
strangers, have internalized the (sexist) rule of "never hit a woman".
But then, in the few instances where it does escalate to violence -
and despite the fact that it escalates to violence more often with men -
we take those examples and pretend it proves that women are
disproportionately victims. It isn't because the statistics actually
support it. Its because our misogynist society starts out with the
premise that women are victims as a given, and then looks for the
evidence to support it.

None of this is to suggest that harassment or assault (when it
does actually happen) are ok. They aren't. But please please stop
perpetuating the myth that women are the victims of assault more often
than men. It falsely paints women as weak and helpless, and does not
advance the cause of equality. Besides, its just plain wrong.